CA grad McWilliams hitting the links out West

Thursday

After years of playing baseball, Sean McWilliams is concentrating on his golf game these days, though he had to move to Arizona to do so.

A 2002 Canandaigua Academy grad, McWilliams played golf and baseball for the Braves. He then went on to the University at Buffalo to play baseball at the NCAA Division I level.

“In college I wasn’t able to play much golf,” said McWilliams. “All summer long I would work construction in the morning and then I would have to be on the baseball field by 3 p.m.”

After graduating from UB in 2006, he landed a sales job in Rochester but quickly realized that he wanted to be somewhere he could golf 365 days a year.

The answer: The desert and Scottsdale, Ariz., where golf is a year-round sport.

“I’m following my golf dream now,” McWilliams said. “I moved out to Scottsdale specifically to play golf. The first day I got here I was out on the range hitting.”

McWilliams originally worked full time as an outside service operator for TPC Scottsdale, the golf course where a regular PGA event is held every year, but realized it was too much.

“When I was working there full-time I was barely playing any golf,” McWilliams said. “When I wasn’t working, I wouldn’t want to be at the course because I worked there all day.”

After about six months, he decided to limit his work at TPC to only a few Sundays a month, and he got a job in sales at SonicWALL, an Internet security company.

“The best part about it is that I get to keep my playing privileges and practice after work,” McWilliams said.

McWilliams works on accounts back east in New England and Canada, which helps his golf game in another way.

“I work from 6 to 3 and I’m able to go to the golf course and play 18 holes after work,” he said.

McWilliams also recently got back into golfing competitively for the first time since high school, entering the local U.S Open qualifier where he shot an 81.

“It took me awhile to build up the nerve and sign up for a few of these tournaments,” he said.

In the Arizona Amateur Qualifier at McCormick Ranch, he shot a 69, tying for third and sending him to the Arizona Amateur Championship. Last month he entered the Arizona Open Qualifier and made the cut, so he will play in the Open, Sept. 11-13 at Desert Mountain’s Apache Course, alongside many pros.

“My goal of course is to play as many amateur events that I can,” said McWilliams. “Do the best I can and eventually try to get a sponsor so I can turn professional and qualify for the PGA Qualifying School.”

Easing the tension

Many golfers feel anxiety and tension when approaching the tee or standing over a putt. It’s what many call the yips. Energy consultant Joanne Jaworski believes it may be caused by a block in one’s energy.

“Energy channels run from your head to your feet,” Jaworski said. “Those channels can get interrupted by something happening in your life — an irritation, a belief system — and instead of flowing the way they’re meant to flow they get blocked.”

Jaworski uses a combination of acupressure and verbal coaching, which first was used back in 1995, to help athletes, specifically golfers, in relaxing and easing their pain.

“It’s a tapping technique,” Jaworski said. “It taps on different acupressure points and it stimulates those energy channels, but what makes it even more effective are the words and verbal coaching. Your body will start to release and unlock the blockages.”

Jaworski knows that not everyone’s pains can be eased by one of her sessions but she is hopeful.

“I’m not saying you’re going to be jumping for joy in five minutes,” she said. “But I have seen dramatic changes in a matter of minutes.”

Many clients, including Patricia Sweetland, a teacher from Irondequoit, said it helped a neck pain almost immediately with just one session.

“She did the routine and said, ‘Now try and move your neck,’” said Sweetland. “And I couldn’t believe it, and I don’t believe it to this day. I could move my neck all the way to the side, which I haven’t been able to do in 10 years.”

I experienced the technique myself and had a sense of relaxation and also an ease of pain that I had been having in my right shoulder. The experience is different and if it can’t get rid of some pain, there’s a good chance it will at least be relaxing.

“I would have people start to lean back in their chair,” said Jaworski. “As if they were drifting off.”

Though Jaworski typically works with athletes, other consultants in the area use it for other purposes.

“I know one [area therapist] that is working with war veterans,” Jaworski said. “Because it’s good with post-traumatic stress.”

To get in touch with Jaworski call (585) 621-7571 or e-mail her at goodvibes@rochesterr.rr.com.

Dan Cristofaro’s “Tee to Green” runs on Thursdays in the Daily Messenger. Contact him at dcristofaro@messengerpostmedia.com.

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